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Yes on Measure B is Priceless

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Submitted

Editor: Dear Editor,
Recently a local hedge fund CEO and securities trader complained that voting Yes on Measure B to protect Sonoma from big hotels would be “robbing us.” Which “us” is he talking about? Seems to me that the “robbing” is usually in the other direction. In any case, I guess the 1 percent don’t think they have enough money. To them, Sonoma is just another “undervalued” piece of property to monetize. But it’s not about money.
Everywhere you look, communities are standing up to commercial interests that put profits first. A similar Measure B is on the ballot in San Francisco, where residents are trying to stop a tower of luxury condominiums along the waterfront that will create a barrier as high as the old Embarcadero freeway. It’s not about the money.
I just watched the short film Rebels With A Cause, about the conservationists who protected Marin Headlands, Point Reyes, and vast agricultural lands from housing tracts, hotels and marinas. It reminds me that we can and must stand up for the treasured places and spaces that are under threat from commercial exploitation. It’s not about the money.
The Sonoma folks who write editorials and “news stories” focused on dollars, dollars, dollars completely miss the mark. Yes on Measure B to keep the town’s hotel’s small and the big hotels away is not about money at all. It is about preserving and protecting Sonoma’s small-town character for the long-term, which is priceless.